The present disclosure relates to method of making a structure having a patterned a base layer. The method is particularly useful in the fabrication of optical and electronic devices including bioelectronic devices.
There are many methods available for patterning multi-layer structures, e.g., in the formation of electronic, optical or mechanical components and devices. The particular method chosen depends on many factors such as dimensional tolerances, material compatibilities, throughput requirements, manufacturing costs and the like. Photolithography is a common patterning technique, used especially in the construction of microelectronic devices on flat surfaces such as glass, silicon wafers or plastic. Photolithography can provide high resolution images and may be done on a large scale. For example, electronic back planes for displays are commonly constructed using photolithography. Flat surfaces help enable uniform coating of various layers and high quality photolithographic processes. In manufacturing, a plurality of backplanes or semiconductor chips are typically constructed on a flat sheet or wafer of glass or silicon and then laser- or mechanically diced into individual backplanes or chips. This can generate unwanted dust and debris that may contaminate the devices and result in additional washing steps.
Sometimes multilayer structures or devices do not have a symmetrical shape and they are not easily cut into the desired shape without damaging the structure or causing low yield. One can optionally cut a support into the desired shape first and then apply additional layers, but at the sacrifice of the economy of scale. Further, coating uniform layers and photopatterning is often not amenable to non-symmetrically shaped articles.
Thus, a need exists for an improved method for patterning multilayer structures. In particular, a method of patterning structures is needed that is capable of providing articles having shapes other than simple squares or parallelograms, with high precision and large throughput, but without the need for laser or mechanical dicing.